ASSISTED dying could be legalised in England and Wales after a historic vote saw proposed legislation clear its first hurdle in Parliament.

MPs for both Runcorn and Widnes entered their votes in Parliament today, Friday.

A majority of MPs, including Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, supported a Bill that would allow terminally ill adults with a life expectancy of less than six months to end their lives.

There were emotional scenes in the Commons as politicians on both sides of the debate made impassioned arguments for and against what has been described as a “major social reform”.

Encouraging or assisting suicide is currently against the law in England and Wales, with a maximum jail sentence of 14 years.

MPs voted 330 to 275, a majority of 55, to approve Kim Leadbeater’s Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill at its second reading.

Both Widnes and Halewood MP Derek Twigg (Labour) and Runcorn and Helsby MP Mike Amesbury (Formerly Labour now independent) voted against the Bill.

Opposition and pro-change campaigners had gathered outside Parliament from early on Friday.

Pro-change organisation Dignity in Dying described the vote result as a ‘historic step towards greater choice and protection for dying people’, while My Death, My Decision said ‘thousands of people will be heartened’ by it.

But Christian Concern branded this a ‘very Black Friday for the vulnerable in this country’, and said the Bill ‘must be stopped at third reading’.

The four-and-a-half hour debate in the Commons heard arguments from MPs surrounding a need to give a choice to dying people.

Labour MP Ms Leadbeater insisted her Bill has strict safeguards against coercion and said a new law would give society ‘a much better approach towards end-of-life’.

She insisted the approach was not that assisted dying would be a substitute for palliative care, but that when it cannot meet the needs of a dying person, ‘the choice of an assisted death should be one component of a holistic approach to end-of-life care’.

The Bill will next go to committee stage, where MPs can table amendments, and it will face further scrutiny and votes in both the House of Commons and Lords, meaning any change in the law would not be agreed until next year at the earliest.

Ms Leadbeater has said it would likely be a further two years from then for an assisted dying service to be in place.